Newsletters – and the lonely statistician

A few years ago, a friend (no, it wasn’t me) decided he needed a wife.

So he went online dating.

Now…this guy is a statistician, so he took the whole process very seriously.

He even created a spreadsheet.

And because he is a statistician, he calculated exactly how many women he would need to contact, how many coffee dates he would have to go on, how many dinners, how many second and third dates…before he found the perfect mate.

And you know what?

Just as the spreadsheet predicted, after 18 dinners he found a wonderful woman who agreed to date him.

And now they are married and have three beautiful children.

Romantic? Maybe not.

Efficient? Very.

After all, it only takes one person. And she’s out there.

This kind of thinking – coldly practical as it may be – is extremely useful when you are analyzing your newsletter campaign.

After all, in many businesses, it doesn’t take many people to say “I do” to make the whole thing worthwhile.

For example, in real estate, if you earn commission of, say, $7500 from a closed transaction, it pays for over six years of newsletters from our service (that’s if you go on our monthly plan – much more if you get our cheaper annual program).

So the question is, do you think you can get one closed transaction thanks to your newsletter in six years?

I’d hope so.

Get just two transactions and you’re way ahead.

(And that doesn’t count the potential value of that client over multiple transactions and from referrals.)

So…maybe it’s worth doing a spreadsheet.

After all, it’s better to make your analysis based on cold, hard numbers rather than a hunch.